Wicked Edge Pro – 1st Impressions

[Larry Barnes]

Hello WE forum.

Happy to join you.

Rcv’d my Pro Pack II w Carrying Case couple of weeks ago. Total incl. leather strops w .25/.125 spray and $74 shipping to Canada was $1,052. Some problem with original shipment at Canada customs and unit returned to WE and reshipped. On arrival had to pay another $200 for brokerage/GST. Not happy.

Unpacked unit and put up on my office desk and just looked at / admired for 2-3 days while I printed out the wiki instructions, read the forum and looked at videos.

A little unsure where to start as I didn’t have any old beater knives. Decided to begin with an old meat cleaver to get some experience and break in the diamond stones. Wanted to see how aggressive the 100/200 stones are so decided to cut a 20 degree relief on each side and finish with a 25 degree cutting edge.

Comments

1. Included Instruction Book was for sharpener with original arms. Guess Clay hasn’t had time to get a Pro version printed yet. Had to look at Pro Pack II assembly instruction on website to confirm I had arms on right.

2. Glad an Angle Cube included in package. Angles on the base rod are set for knife that extends 5/8” above the clamp. Cleaver is 2 1/4” and after setting up for 20 degree with angle cube, the setting on the base rod is at 25 degrees.

3. After first couple of sharpening strokes, I noticed the WE base had some play in it (unit came pre-assembled in carrying case). I removed cleaver, turned granite base on side to tighten screws only to find that they were topped out on the WE base. Had to go to hardware store to get a couple of washers to shorten screw length so they would tighten properly. Not impressed.

4. After getting that corrected, I set up cleaver and started sharpening again only to find that the fixed jaw vice on the WE base was loose. Has to take off cleaver, remove unit from the granite base, tighten the screw holding the fixed vice jaw and reassemble again. Clay needs to have a chat with his assembly people.

Note: Except for the sloppy, substandard assembly, everything else about the unit, including the skookum carrying case is great.

5. Have spent 1-2 hrs now grinding relief and still a fair way to go. The 100/200 stones are not coarse enough for cutting a lot of metal. Think I am going to order the 50/80’s and put sharpening the cleaver on hold until they arrive.

6. I am impressed with how solid the unit is. My Apex always had a bit of play in it that I never liked.

7. Glad I put rubber washers (1/4” hole) on bottom of stone arms. As I was aggressively trying to cut relief, I would occasionally bottom stone. Washers great for absorbing any impact.

8. Also glad I cut fingers from rubber glove to slide on stone arms and cover the ball joints as I have a lot of metal shavings.

9. Noticed a lot of metal shavings all over cleaver blade standing on edge the same as if attracted to a magnet.

10. Think I am going to try out on a Henckles 8” chef knife next.

Sharp edges everyone.
Larry

[Adrian King]

Sorry to here about your initial problems, mine came completely unassembled and had to put everything together. I didn’t get the case though so maybe that’s why it was pre-assembled.

Do you have any pic’s of the rubber glove thing? I’ve made no attempt to cover my ball joints and am wondering if its something I should do.

[cbwx34]

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the feedback. Rubber washers for the arms are a good idea.

There should have been a couple of washers (metal on one side, rubber on the other) for the bottom of the base… did yours have those?

Any idea what your cleaver’s original angle was? The 100g stones actually work pretty well, especially new… so curious what it was.

[Larry Barnes]

Found suggestion for covering ball joints on forum somewhere. Someone suggested that ball joints, being exposed might eventually get damaged or worn with metal filing getting in them. Someone from Australia replaced the Pro ball joints with a set of inclosed joints which Clay was going to look into.

Cut fingers off a pair of rubber dish washing gloves. Snip off a small part of tip and pull down over arms to cover ball joints.

Will post a pic when I fiqure out how to add attachment jpg.

[Larry Barnes]

Yes. Two washers were included in a small zip lock bag along with a 1/2″ screw I assume is for the top hole on the vice jaw clamp when sharpening a low angle item like a straight razor where the usual screw would stick out too much and get in the way of the stone. Didn’t know what the the washers were for at the time.

After going back and reading “Assembling Your Pro-Pack II or Pro-Pack II Upgrade Kit” under Resources / Instructions it says in Step 5: “To mount your sharpener to the Mounting Plate, slide the the included washers onto the #10-32 Flat Socket Head Cap screws with the metal side facing the heads of the screws and slide those through the underside of the Mounting Plate. Thread them into the holes on the bottom of the blue sharpener Base and tighten them down with the smaller of the hex keys on the Vise Key. Affix the four adhesive backed rubber bumpers to the underside of the Mounting Plate at each corner”.

So I didn’t have to go to trouble to get washers myself. Still, you would think they would have being put on by when assembled at WE. A thought that occurs to me now is that my “assembled” unit was just a quick put together to fit in carrying case and I was supposed to know enough to take apart and reassemble myself.

Regarding Cleaver, the original angle was around 30 degrees but the blade is quite thick behind edge so when I am putting the 20 degree (10 on each side) relief on it I am creating an edge that is almost 5/16″ wide which is a lot of metal to grind down. I am sure the 100 stone will cut the much smaller cutting edge just fine.

[Phil Pasteur]

Wow You are really thinning that edge. I am not sure that I would put a 10 degree per side (20 degree inclusive) bevel on much of anything. Well maybe a specialty super hard steel blade only used for very fine work. For a cleaver, at least the way I use a cleaver, I would go with something like 20 to 25 degrees per side.. depending on the steel to some extent…

For the kind of change you are talking about …if I ever do it, I would take to the belt grinder and use an 80 grit belt… You are removing a whole lot of metal…

I have gone from 22 degrees to 16 degrees per side on a 4″ blade in S30V, and even that was a job that took way too long with my very broken in, 100 grit Diamond stones… at least for my level of patience.

I too want some more coarse stones for that occasional job. I am sort of waiting for the DMT plates that Clay has coming for the WEPS…

[cbwx34]

Yes. Two washers were included in a small zip lock bag along with a 1/2″ screw I assume is for the top hole on the vice jaw clamp when sharpening a low angle item like a straight razor where the usual screw would stick out too much and get in the way of the stone. Didn’t know what the the washers were for at the time.

After going back and reading “Assembling Your Pro-Pack II or Pro-Pack II Upgrade Kit” under Resources / Instructions it says in Step 5: “To mount your sharpener to the Mounting Plate, slide the the included washers onto the #10-32 Flat Socket Head Cap screws with the metal side facing the heads of the screws and slide those through the underside of the Mounting Plate. Thread them into the holes on the bottom of the blue sharpener Base and tighten them down with the smaller of the hex keys on the Vise Key. Affix the four adhesive backed rubber bumpers to the underside of the Mounting Plate at each corner”.

So I didn’t have to go to trouble to get washers myself. Still, you would think they would have being put on by when assembled at WE. A thought that occurs to me now is that my “assembled” unit was just a quick put together to fit in carrying case and I was supposed to know enough to take apart and reassemble myself.

Regarding Cleaver, the original angle was around 30 degrees but the blade is quite thick behind edge so when I am putting the 20 degree (10 on each side) relief on it I am creating an edge that is almost 5/16″ wide which is a lot of metal to grind down. I am sure the 100 stone will cut the much smaller cutting edge just fine.

Thanks for the feedback… I’m sure it’ll be put to good use. It might have just been an oversight… I think they started putting the kits inside the carrying cases to save on shipping, and being a new process there might be some bugs to work out… or it might have just slipped thru. I don’t think the idea is for you to have to “reassemble” it.

10 deg. per side… that probably is some metal removal work! :woohoo: I agree with Phil… that might be too thin,,,, depends on what you’re using if for though. At any rate… a good learning project I suppose…:dry:

[wickededge]

Yes. Two washers were included in a small zip lock bag along with a 1/2″ screw I assume is for the top hole on the vice jaw clamp when sharpening a low angle item like a straight razor where the usual screw would stick out too much and get in the way of the stone. Didn’t know what the the washers were for at the time.

After going back and reading “Assembling Your Pro-Pack II or Pro-Pack II Upgrade Kit” under Resources / Instructions it says in Step 5: “To mount your sharpener to the Mounting Plate, slide the the included washers onto the #10-32 Flat Socket Head Cap screws with the metal side facing the heads of the screws and slide those through the underside of the Mounting Plate. Thread them into the holes on the bottom of the blue sharpener Base and tighten them down with the smaller of the hex keys on the Vise Key. Affix the four adhesive backed rubber bumpers to the underside of the Mounting Plate at each corner”.

So I didn’t have to go to trouble to get washers myself. Still, you would think they would have being put on by when assembled at WE. A thought that occurs to me now is that my “assembled” unit was just a quick put together to fit in carrying case and I was supposed to know enough to take apart and reassemble myself.

Regarding Cleaver, the original angle was around 30 degrees but the blade is quite thick behind edge so when I am putting the 20 degree (10 on each side) relief on it I am creating an edge that is almost 5/16″ wide which is a lot of metal to grind down. I am sure the 100 stone will cut the much smaller cutting edge just fine.

We recently tried some new personnel in the assembly/shipping dept. that didn’t work out. I’m really sorry you were the unhappy recipient of that experience. We’ve since moved people around to eliminate the assembly problems like yours that were beginning to surface.

-Clay

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